Cinnamon Mabel Dalton always struggled to fit in. A musical savant at an early age, Cinn’s life was anything but easy. After a failed marriage and broken heart, she worried she would never find someone who understood her devotion to her craft, and her family. Then her Grandma Mable passed away, she inherited a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, and her whole life changed. Dr. Foster Kern, the … Kern, the director of the Little Ivywood Humane Society, spent hours with Mable Dalton being regaled with stories about her granddaughter, Cinn. Suddenly face-to-face with the woman he had heard so much about, he realized Mabel didn’t do her justice. Cinn’s exotic looks and giant heart were exactly what he’d been searching for, but he truly believed a woman like Cinn would never be interested in a guy like him.
Cinn and Foster team up to protect her grandmother’s legacy, but neither of them could predict how quickly they would discover a mutual happiness they’d both been searching for. When fate unwittingly reveals Cinn’s hidden truth, she has two choices; trust her heart to Foster or run away from a lifetime of love.
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Inherited Love is told with a lovely sense of humor from Cinnamon Mabel Dalton’s point of view. She was named after her grandmother, who was “a cantankerous old woman who gained her nickname from her first line of work, being an assassin.” When her grandmother passed away, Cinnamon inherited Brutus, her two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, and the monetary means to care for him, to the envy of her siblings. What makes the story real is remembering the old woman; continuing to feel her presence and hear her voice: “If you’re reading this, I’m dead. That is what everyone says when they find a mysterious note, right?”
Cinn’s falling in love with Dr. Foster Kern, the director of the Little Ivywood Humane Society—with Brutus between them—is a love triangle. “I saw a flash of fur coming from the living room and shoved Foster against the counter as Brutus came bouncing into the kitchen, placing his paws up on Foster’s shoulders then slurping up the side of his face.” Gaining confidence in Foster’s commitment to care for her, despite her sickness—in contrast to her ex-husband—is a process. The endurance of love in the face of challenges makes the characters real.
Five stars.
I love how this story, which is a traditional romance in all the right ways, is also very different in extraordinary ways. First, the strong, handsome, rugged man, Foster, is strong minded, handsome in his own way but not in a traditional movie-star way, and rugged only in his feelings for the heroine, Cinn. He’s a hero in a real sense, in that he’s a veterinarian, taking care of animals, and his love for Cinn is unconditional. He’s the type of man we all should be clamoring for, and Cinn looks beyond his tubby tummy and non-perfect outward appearance to see through to his perfect heart.
It’s a wonderful story of Cinn overcoming past rejection and learning to trust again. But in the end, I’m sure she’s glad of all she had to go through, because she found something far better than a stud, she found a real man. One who accepts her for all she is, and can be there for her to help her in ways she never thought possible.
Besides the wonderful romance, there’s a bit of a mystery. Cinn and Foster try to solve it, and in so doing, become even closer.
Other things I loved about this story – Mabel! Oh my gosh, Cinn’s grandmother sounds like a real character, I fell in love with her. The dogs. So many dogs in one story, you can never have too many dogs! They’re all wonderful friends of Foster and Cinn. Cinn was a musical child prodigy and now teaches children. Or do the children teach her? There are lessons to go around for everyone.
This the ultimate feel-good romance, which has left a lasting smile on my heart.
Another awesome read by Katie Mettner! I fell in love with the characters and the story. I’m hoping there’s a second book!